Album Launch: Shyann – Into the Ground

Official CD Release Party for Shyann – Into the GroundJuly 4th 2013 At The Drake Hotel – 8pm

Former student, Nick Londono (Nick Name) and Shyann met in 2009 and set out to collaborate on Shyann’s debut album. A very experimental process, the album sought to fill the gap in between various music styles. Nick Name believes their sound could be a marriage between very “musical” arrangements and “groove”, creating something with edge and without compromising on musical substance. Three years in the making, the result is ‘Into The Ground’.

The process saw the combination of a lot of organic instrumentation; upright pianos, percussion, beatboxing, acoustic guitars, B3 organs, contrabass and brass instruments, with a sample – driven style of production. Shyann saw the project as an opportunity to grow and expand from her background as a jazz singer. She took her songwriting into territories influenced by trip hop, folk, funk and R&B, all of which became part of finding her own sound as an artist.

The songs saw different shapes and structures, treating the end result as a “remix” of the original material. The lengthy creative process can be attributed to the experimental nature of the project, the close attention to detail and the decision to take time away from the album periodically for the sake of objectivity. Nick Name and Shyann made sure to stay true to what was unite about each song and the original source of inspiration.

Nick Name’s production philosophy was not to approach a record as a representation of a live act. Instead, making the album a piece of work of it’s own. As a result, the process of recreating the complex arrangements of the album live in between two people involved the use of loop machines, live drum sampling and live multi-vocal layer, making it possible to bring the songs to audiences in an organic way. Despite their hop hop influences, they refuse the use of any back up tracks on stage.